Maddy
by Charlie Hartley
Summary: 'Paladins kill Jumpers,' I said. 'I kill Paladins. Class dismissed.' Because, as it turns out, Griffin isn't the only Jumper fighting back.


I'm not a normal twelve-year-old at all. I haven't been to school since I was five, and I can't really read and write. But I'm a mass murderer. In the past two years (since I learnt to do maths properly), I've killed twenty eight people, and I'm about to kill my twenty ninth. I'm going to buy myself a treat when I get to thirty.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't kill them if I didn't have to. But you have to kill if you don't want to get killed; and I have no death wish, thank you very much. It's not _my_ fault that they hunt me and my kind. But then, I suppose, I kill my kind as well. Three, to be precise. They were annoying me.

A hunter's correct name is a Paladin. And the correct name for me- that is, a teleporter- is a Jumper (because we jump from place to place. See? Clever).

When you're a Jumper, then you can do whatever the Hell you like. Nothing's stopping you from going anywhere, or doing anything. But Paladins are crazy religious freaks, who think that God should be the only one that has the power to be in more than one place at a time. But it's not like we are in more that one place at a time. We can still only be in one place; it's just whatever place we want.

All this runs through my mind as I Jump to the middle of the Atlantic ocean; my favourite place to dump Paladins. They're so stupid. They think that just cause I'm young, and female, they're so much better than me. But I've been doing this since I was five. I've been on my own since I was eight.

When we were at the very bottom of the ocean, the Paladin grabs hold of the bottom of my trousers. If I jumped, then I'd take the bloody man with me. Had I been anyone else, the lack of oxygen would have got to me, and I would have panicked, and probably drowned. Or I would have ended up spluttering in the middle of a very busy place, and have to try and fight off a man twice the size of me, who has a gun. But instead, I planted my heavy walking boot in to his face, and jumped away.

I was gasping for breath when I was back in my hide out in Russia. It was my fifth hiding place in as many years, and by far my favourite. It was cold, it was damp, and it was lonely; but it was also home. Books were piled up everywhere, where I'd been trying desperately to learn something that might come in handy at some point in my life. Newspaper cuttings were stuck up on the wall, with scribbled threats all over them. There were six people I was tracking at the moment; it used to be seven, but I don't think I'll be seeing him again.

The first one was the head of the Paladins, but I'd been tracking him for years, and dodging him. He was dangerous, even more so since he's realised that so am I. Four of them were boring Paladins that I'll get rid of eventually, but the sixth was a Jumper, and that interested me. I hadn't found a Jumper in months, and the last one I did find, I promptly killed, because he was a nutter. I'd been tracking him for a few weeks yet, and I already knew where he lived, and broken in to his flat in New York. He had no idea about any of it. He barely made a secret of that fact that he could jump, he robbed banks, he lived in a massive, expensive apartment, and he even had his favourite jump sites up on his walls. I knew all this because I'd broken in to his flat.

After having tore down all the notes and articles on the drowned Paladin, I had a lovely shower, and then curled up on my sofa, and started reading. I always read in a funny way; with the book flat on my lap, and hunching over it. After an hour and a half of this, I realised that I had only read a chapter, and that I'd been reading the same page for ages without taking any of it in. I yawned, and stretched. I threw my head back to stretch my neck, and the cuttings on the wall caught my eye. I pulled myself up from the creaky sofa which I had made myself comfortable, and stared at the all-important pieces of flimsy paper for the second time that day. I was reminded about the Jumper I was so curious about, and decided that that day was the day I would confront him.

Of course, it took more than a day to find him. I may have known his Jumpsites, but he still had the whole world to roam around him. It took me nearly a week to find him.

But, I did eventually find him. It was in Rome. I thought that he'd probably have a lady friend, and Rome is famous for it's romance. So, I was hanging around there; the Colleseum especially. I was immensely pleased when I finally saw someone that might have been him. I grinned. He obviously had no idea what was going on around him.

I Jumped in to the Colleseum, and was just behind him, hiding behind stone pillar thingies. I thought that he must have liked her a lot to have got her in to this place; they'd closed it for the day, for whatever reason.

'Wow!' the girl he was with was saying. 'This place is amazing.'

I wondered how long it would take for him to realise that she was as good as dead. Although, I didn't like her. She had a weirdly shaped face, and was going on about Romans and shit. I had to Jump away, because they'd turned around and were coming my way.

When I'd Jumped to the middle bit (I've never been to keen on architecture), I let out a deep breath that I hadn't realised that I'd been keeping in. 'Oi!' I heard someone whisper loudly behind me. 'Maddy.' I spun around on my heel, ready to fight my way out of trouble; I could have Jumped, but decided against it. If it was a Paladin, then I should stay to fight.

I groaned when I recognised the crazy hair and the leather jacket. 'What're you doin' 'ere?' he said quietly.

'What am I doin' 'ere? What're _you_ doin' 'ere?'

'I'm followin' that Jumper lad.'

'No, yer not. I am.'

'No, I am.' I shoved him a bit. He pushed me back.

'Just cause yer older-' I started saying.

'I've been followin' 'im fer weeks!'

'So 'ave I. Longer than you, anyway. _I'm_ takin' 'im on.'

'Why you?' I couldn't think of a retaliation. 'Yer so annoyin'!' he said.

'At least I've got better dress sense than you!'

'Yeah. With yer blue 'air an everythin'...' That irritated me. I was very proud of my hair. I'd dip dyed it a few days earlier. I was about to reply with an equally biting answer, when I sensed that someone had Jumped nearby.

'See yer,' I said, Jumping away.

I sat myself down on top of something or another, and made myself comfortable for when the new Jumper walked by. He was staring up at me. 'Er, d'yer mind?' I asked, gesturing for him to go. 'This ain't a freak show, y'know.'

'Sorry,' he said, and carried on walking, but his confusion was obvious. I followed him, Jumping to the ground. When I saw my brother coming out of hiding, I couldn't believe it. I wanted to scream at him. I had it under control!

'I wouldn't open that door if I were you. Not if I wanted my girlfriend to keep breathin'. But, y'know. That's just me.' I was actually impressed by how he looked, with a baseball bat in hand. But I decided that my stupid brother wasn't going to run the whole show.

'Anyway,' I said, coming up behind the new Jumper. 'What did yer think was goin' to 'appen, that you were just gonna bring yer little girlfriend for a nice romantic picnic, or what?' He had spun round on his heels to look at me, while Griffin made eyes at me, telling me to go away.

'If you so much as look at her,' the new one said to Griffin. I rolled my eyes. They always assumed that I wasn't a threat.

'What're you gonna do, you gonna Jump me, Jump me where?' he said, quickly firing the sentences at the poor guy. I Jumped to stand next to Griffin.

'Did yer think you were the only one?' Griffin said. He Jumped about a meter away from us.

'Yer really 'ave no idea, d'yer?' I Jumped away.

'What, yer think that you can just lead the life you live, go on a romantic 'oliday, and they wouldn't notice?' said Griffin while the Jumper turned a full cirlce to find me. I sort of felt sorry for him. Griffin and I could be very intimidating when we wanted to be.

'But they've noticed,' I said, suddenly standing where I had been a minute ago.

'I mean, not us,' Griffin explained. 'No, I mean, we already knew about it, it's them,' he said, gesturing to the other end of the enormous building. I turned around. Jesus! I hadn't come prepared for any sort of fight. But I faked confidence; something I've come to be very good at over the years.

''ello, boys!' I said cheerfully. 'It's us again!' Griffin and I hadn't fought together for ages.

The Paladins obviously thought that they were the real deal. They had long coats and big briefcases; but there were only two of them. It was three against two; until the new Jumper Jumped away, and they brought out a long instrument that looked like it could inflict pain on any Jumper. Then it was the two grown men with a weapon against a twelve-year-old, Griffin, and a baseball bat. 'Is that new?' asked Griffin.

He Jumped away just in time; the wire-y that shot out of the instrument thing nearly caught him. And it did catch the new Jumper. I guessed that these Paladins were new as well, because they completely ignored me. I Jumped behind them, then ran full force towards one of them and kicked him in the head with both feet. He fell to the ground as I Jumped away to avoid the other one. The new Jumper was writhing about on the floor, and Griffin was unscathed. 'Welcome to the war,' I said warmly, before Jumping about the Colloseum.

Neither of us stayed in one place for more that half a second. It didn't tire us at all; we may as well have been walking away. 'Just let us know when yer get tired!' I called down. The new Jumper was stupidly trying to escape from the Paladin I had knocked down. Griffin had grabbed hold of that Paladin, and Jumping towards the door, behind which the new Jumper's dead girlfriend was waiting.

'Let's meet the girlfriend, shall we?' But instead of scaring the new guy's girlfriend, Griffin had Jumped up in to the air, smashing the Paladin in to a stone wall. I kicked the second Paladin down, then jumped on his skull. I was pretty sure that he was dead. And I had killed my thirtieth Paladin!

'Who are these people?' asked the new Jumper.

'Who're you?' I asked suspiciously. 'I'm Maddie, by the way. That's Griffin.'

'David,' he said. 'Are you two...?'

'Siblings?' I nodded.

'Paladins,' said Griffin, after having double checked that both of the said people were killed.

'What?'

'Paladins kill Jumpers,' I said. 'I kill Paladins. Class dismissed.'

When some stupid Italian woman started to interfere, I Jumped away; back to Russia. I didn't fancy getting done for murder.

I fell back on to my sofa, breathing heavily. I'd forgotten how much fun it was to fight next to Griffin. But, when he'd nearly killed himself saving me, he'd realised that it was too dangerous for us to do anything together, and that we were putting ourselves in immense danger by doing it. But I didn't believe him. I was eight at the time we went our different ways; I could look after myself, but that's got to mess with anyone's head. He was sixteen.

I wondered about that new Jumper. He was really old; older than Griffin, anyway. I wondered how he managed to keep it all a secret; from us, and from the Paladins. But then my thoughts went back to Griffin, and I thought that I should ask him whether we could get back together again. We were obviously both awesome fighters, and we had a weird thing that came with being sibling Jumpers, we think, that means if we wanted to find the other, we could simply Jump to them. I didn't conciously know where Griffin was; but if I pictured him, then I could Jump to him. That has worked to our advantage in the past.

And it was really lonely, being on our own. I knew for a fact that Griffin sits around in his lair all day, talking to himself and playing on his game consoles. If we worked together, not only would we stand half a chance at actually making a difference to what happens with the Paladins, but we actually do love each other, like any brother and sister. It was one Hell of a lot more fun to be messing around with my big brother than rattling around on my own.

So, before I could chicken out, I pictured him, and Jumped to the lair. But I'd been beaten to him. 'Your family,' he was saying when I arrived in his home. 'That little girlfriend you've been traipsing around Rome with. They're all dead.' He looked up when I stumbled in. I'd forgotten how weird it was to find him without actually knowing where he was. 'Maddy!' he said. David turned around, but I ignored him.

'What's the deal?' I asked.

'What's what deal?'

'Did yer see us? We were awesome! Yer honestly don't think that we could, like, make a difference or summat? Y'know, together?'

'No. I honestly don't. Anyway, I don't 'ave time fer this.'

'What're yer doin' that stops yer?'

'No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not 'appenin'.'

I sat down on a chair, stamping my foot in frustration. David looked on the verge of tears, but Griffin was having none of it. 'I'm kind of 'ungry. I think I'm goin' to 'ave a takeaway. D'yer want some?'


End file.
